


Showers

by tatooedlaura



Series: Life [32]
Category: The X-Files
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-29
Updated: 2016-12-29
Packaged: 2018-09-13 03:52:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9105508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tatooedlaura/pseuds/tatooedlaura
Summary: Trying not to drown in a bathtub can be hard work ...





	

He did his best not to complain but by the next morning, his leg was throbbing. Trying to keep his mouth shut, he couldn’t help wincing when Scully bumped into the mattress. She turned in time to see him go white, “oh, God, I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

Through clenched teeth, “it’s fine.”

Coming to crouch beside him, careful not to touch the bed, “do you need more pain meds yet?”

“Nope. Just a good shot of whiskey and a bat to the face.” Shifted as well as he could, he nodded, “okay, maybe more drugs would be good.”

“I don’t think we can put you in a car right now. I don’t think we could even get you to the elevator.”

“Well, then, you will open the balcony doors and make sure you do your surfing right in front of the hotel so I can watch you from my comfortable and very large king size bed.”

“What if you have to go to the bathroom?”

“I will fire from here and pray I can make it around corners.”

Bursting into laughter, “how about I just stay up here today? Maybe we can get you out on the balcony, I can go pick up breakfast and some tacos for lunch we can eat later. I’ve got cards in my bag so we can practice our cheating or we can try to learn some Spanish watching TV.”

“I hate pity, Scully, you know that.”

“And I’m going to hate to have to clean pee off the wall. I am relaxing in my room today and you just happen to be here, too, so suck it up, buttercup. Now, what do you want on your pancakes?”

&&&&&&&&&&

It took until about 2pm for Scully to sit back in her chair, warm breeze ruffling her hair, to realize and point out to Mulder, “this is the first day we haven’t done anything. I mean, we’ve had to sit while driving but I mean, we are actually just doing absolutely not a damn thing right now.”

“Kinda nice, isn’t it?”

She looked sideways at him, his leg propped on his three pillows on the third chair, his hair stiff, his face semi-crusty from the salt still on his skin, his finally relaxed smile, the half-Vicodin taking care of the pain without making him completely floppy. “It really is. Maybe that’s what they meant by vacation and we’re just figuring it out now.”

“So, the first three weeks were just practice.”

Scully dropped her head back, “has it really been three weeks already.”

“Yeah.”

“I wonder when I’m going to run out of money.”

“I’ll cover you if you need to.”

“We should probably stick to cheaper rooms on the way home.”

Picking up two cards and winning the game, “since I have bought nothing of note for myself in seven years, I have enough money to keep us in a comfortable bed for a little while longer.”

Reshuffling, she smirked, “am I slowly becoming a kept woman?”

“You buy the food, we call it even.”

Sooner than later, Mulder began dozing in his chair and Scully roused him, helping him move to the bed, pain killers administered and leg propped. In his twilight daze, “you take care of me.”

“And you take care of me. That’s how this works.”

“I don’t recall reading that memo.”

“It wasn’t a memo. I left it in note form on your fridge.” Lightly scratching her fingernails through his gritty hair, “when you wake up, I’m going to help you with a shower, all right? I can feel the sand caked on your scalp.”

Eyes blinking once up at her before shutting for his nap, “you want to give me a bath?”

Wondering if she should really be enjoying that thought as much as she was, considering, “something like that.”

&&&&&&&&&&

It wasn’t so much a shower that Mulder got that evening as an awkward, ‘Scully sitting on the toilet holding his cast out of the water while he semi-bathed himself and tried not to drown in the process’ cleaning. After his third accidental slide and dunk, he spluttered to the surface, “there has got to be a cast out there that I could take off, just to shower. This is ridiculous.”

“There are, Mulder, you just can’t use one right now. In a few weeks, you might be able to switch to one but right now, the bones need time to set and start to heal. While that happens, you can’t be taking it on and off and moving.”

Soap in his eyes, he squinted up at her, “I’d be sitting still in a bathtub for Christ’s sake. How much damage could I do?”

Keeping her eyes dutifully shut, she couldn’t help but smile, “you are Fox William Mulder and that is not a question you should ever say out loud.”

Suddenly, she heard him snort, “oh, the stories we’re going to have, Scully.”

“Can we skip telling my mother certain ones, please?”

“We’ll see.”

They got him out of the tub without breaking anything else, Scully, eyes averted but open so they didn’t both end up on the floor. “I swear to God, Mulder, next time, we’re getting a room with a shower attachment and you’re gonna hose off while sitting on a chair.”

&&&&&&&&&&&

At the end of the day, the pair of them lay quietly in their bed, balcony open to the ocean breeze, covers thrown to the bottom of the bed, room soft in its darkness, “you awake?”

“Depends.”

Mulder smiled at her indecisive overtone, “well, if I say I’m sorry for breaking myself but thank you for taking care of me, would you be awake?”

“Probably.”

“What if I said that I’ve had the best vacation, minus the terrible parts, of my entire life with you?”

Turning away from him and settling on her side, “Pretty sure I’d be awake for that.”

“What if I told you that I can’t imagine having anyone else here with me?”

This brought her scooting back so she was pressed against his side, “What if I said back that not only am I awake but that I’m blushing profusely and am enjoying all the compliments?”

“I’d say that you are my best friend and I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

As she fumbled behind her for his hand, which he gladly flopped over her hip, “Oh, brother.”

“Oh, brother! I am pouring my half-Vicodined heart out to you in the middle of a foreign country with a broken leg and all you respond with is ‘oh, brother’?”

“You’re hungry, aren’t you?”

“Completely. Feels like my insides are trying to eat the rest of my insides.”

“I’ll go raid the vending machine. Maybe they’ve refilled the Cheetos section.”

Giving her hip a squeeze, then a roll, “you are a Goddess, Agent Scully.”

“Who said I was bringing anything for you, Agent Mulder.”

After the vending machine raid, Scully dropped several fruit bars, Cheezits and some decidedly strange bags of spicy pretzels on his lap, “will that hold you until breakfast or do you need me to go raid the streets for leftover corn salsa and burritos?”

Pulling open one of the pretzel bags, he held it out to her, “don’t make like you’re not hungry, too. I know that look.”

“I have a look?”

“Oh, dear partner, you have a thousand and one looks and I know them all and that one you’re wearing right now is telling me you are on the verge of hangry and haven’t realized it yet.”

Taking a spicy pretzel and instantly setting her mouth on fire, she scrambled for water, “holy God! These things should come with a warning!”

Mulder watched her gulp down half her bottle before, “well, here’s the thing, Scully, that’s what the word ‘spicy’ denotes, along with the flames making up the name of the food,” holding to package out to her and pointing at the colorful fire-shaped words, “see, ‘Hot and Spicy’, right there. See?”

As she pulled out another one of her many looks, Mulder grinned and popped a pretzel in his mouth, “that look right there is the one telling me I have approximately 3.7 seconds to apologize or you’re going to stuff this whole bag into my mouth and take away my drink.”

Scully glared, then lay down, “g’night, Mulder and you’re welcome for the snacks.”

Now he just laughed, his hand back on her hip, “thank you.”


End file.
